


Haupstrasse 155

by ledbythreads



Category: David Bowie (Musician), Iggy Pop/The Stooges
Genre: 1976, Angst, Berlin, Canon Compliant, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Low, Lust For Life, M/M, NO UNDERAGE CHARACTERS, Period Typical Language, Unrequited Love, giftfic, pretty much, the idiot, transference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:49:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23304178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ledbythreads/pseuds/ledbythreads
Summary: Iggy Pop and David Bowie are living in West Berlin above an auto parts shop next to a gay bar. Iggy's first solo album 'The Idiot' is in the can and Bowie is finishing 'Low'. They live like a couple, but they are not.Giftfic for @Brownskinsugarplum1976 - well this is a strange odd thing of a fic, but as you probably remember this is how I figure these two are with each other.
Relationships: David Bowie/Iggy Pop
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Haupstrasse 155

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brownskinsugarplum76](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brownskinsugarplum76/gifts).



“We should fuck”

Iggy says. He’s still stuck being Iggy Pop. Even if David is kind enough to call him Jim. They are sitting on the floor side by side waiting for Starsky and Hutch to start. David leaning on him is annoying. It restricts his movements. But it also makes him feel incredibly rescued. Coming off smack really aquaplanes his libido; but the feeling of connection is worse, almost unbearable.

“I don’t think so Jim”

Fuck him, that just makes it worse.

What else has he got left for a gift. Not much.

Being resurrected is painful.

“I feel like I’m in love with you. It’s transference”

“I know”

“and you have zero fucking boundaries. So…”

The catch isn’t in his voice. It’s in his chest. His voice is just his normal manipulative, straight-on-through voice. His sister midnight voice. You got me in rags voice. David is largely immune. He misses his parents so much right now.

David sits up straight. Like he is meditating. Poised. Like he is life-modelling for the artist in his head. He sighs. Steeples his elegant fingers together, his index fingers tapping his forehead.

“Jim. Boundaries. I moved us to a city inside a city, inside a wall..."

“with all the smack on the inside...”

“yes, that was a miscalculation. I’m sorry. Look, we can come back to this after the task at hand.”

If they do fuck Iggy bets David will stop in the middle to take notes. Jesus. Literally Jesus. He feels so grateful at times he’d gladly wash David’s feet. Dry them with his hair were it long enough.

The broadcast is on Armed Forces Network. David hovers before the TV set with the reel to reel. He’s recording the call sign. Yesterday he recorded the refrigerator. He recorded the S-Bahn stooped down in his greatcoat. The Berliners did not deign to notice. Iggy sprawls and curls round David while he works. He receives a distracted but kindly pat for his trouble. The beeps – they sound Motown beep beep beep; beep beepdy beep beep. Funky almost but pop. Not like that fat bass Carlos did for The Idiot. Boppy.

Starsky is driving Hutch round in their red car now. They are so in love with each other. Hutch never makes Starsky crawl. Always has his back.

“I’m going down to the bar”

“Uh?”

“Downstairs”

David nods. Tapping. Is he getting bored? ‘Low’ isn’t out till New Year and his own release date will have to wait. Maybe he should just kiss him. Push him down in front of the TV while gunshots fire overhead and sexy women cry. He never would let himself want people he couldn’t have till David turned up. First Keulan, now this. It will only get worse, living together like this.

_Anderes Ufer_. It means something like ‘the other bank’. Like fags back home say a guy plays for the other side. Iggy well, he’s just not in the team at all by this point. How do you stop loving someone who saved your life? Are you just meant to accept it? Some girl he recognizes pulls him into a booth full of pretty hookers. It feels warm. David didn’t mind _her_ cock the time they partied so what’s the problem now? They all have beautiful cocks. He tells her, and she says she needs reminding and gets his out under the table. Nothing serious. He can still carry on a conversation. Everyone has shots and they light them on fire. He can’t remember the girls name. She says she has to go score now, but her friend has heard about his cock too. He’s very pretty and so Iggy kisses him between shots. The boy has his head in Iggy’s lap by the time David turns up. There is this kind of lull while everyone in the booth calls the odds of a fight in their minds. Then David kisses him full on the mouth. It’s hot, possessive, intentional. It’s a million-dollar number one album kiss. It’s like the kiss Lou did for the journalists when David wanted everyone to think he was gay. It feels like redemption. Success.

David slides sinuously into the booth and when the boy looks up, David just strokes his hair and smiles. Magnanimously. David’s being coquettish with Iggy now. His skinny arm draped affectionately round his neck. Iggy knows it’s all for show. That David is probably getting ready for his close-up. But his eyes, electric eyes, ray-gun eyes, still.

Doctor Zucker has explained this. Megaton crush. Transference. Gratitude. David’s kindness is just fucking with his brain chemicals. But it feels like love. In what way is it different? He adores David and it’s painful not to show it. Iggy just wants to be held. Wants David to stroke his back while they watch TV. Wants to be a good girl and wear his ring. But David likes things to be _interesting_. Watching Iggy be blown in a bar is probably mildly interesting. After Iggy comes David takes the boy to the rest room. They go to the women’s room because it has mirrors. When David gestures if he wants to come too, he just smiles no thank you. The familiar girl is back. She shows Iggy her cute little pet rat from her pocket. He’s glad she has something to care for.

Iggy loves David so much they only have one set of keys. They are always together. He watches David open the big Yale lock to their apartment and wonders if they will ever kiss tenderly. Maybe tonight was the last time they will kiss at all.

“I made you something”

“Yeah?”

“Jim?”

Iggy flops down on the settee and realizes that he still has a Bowie tour badge on his leather jacket. He’s not sure who kissed him in the bar. David or Bowie. He thinks it might matter somehow.

“Uhuh?”

“Jim. I love you. So, we are not going to fuck”

What’s the point of saying anything? Is this what happiness feels like?

“Okay”

David picks up his ukulele. Shows him the chord structure. Iggy can feel the money in it. The success. He would swap it all. For one last kiss.

“It’s called Lust for Life” David instructs.

Of course it is. He gets his pencil. He already knows the words.

_“Hey man, where'd you get that lotion?  
I've been hurting since I've bought the gimmick  
Something called love, yeah, something called love  
Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens”_

_..._

**Author's Note:**

> So... This is set after Iggy Pop (James Osterburg) and David Bowie record 'The Idiot' after several disastrous years for Iggy of serious opiate addiction, the break up of The Stooges, and mental health problems (his psychiatrist Dr Zucker remained a friend and great ally). Bowie has had a serious cocaine addiction of his own but his success has still been phenomenal. He has taken Iggy with him as his companion on tour (some of which you can get the impression of from Nightclubbing on The Idiot). Finally they settle in West Berlin, then an enclave of capitalist West Germany physically inside in Communist East Germany  
> There are some fantastic articles about this time for Iggy Pop and more so Bowie so I will not repeat them. Everything is taken from canon except that Iggy and David are of course characters as are the exact people in the bar (the bar is real and still there). Iggy has written some amazing tributes to Bowie, particularly after his death, but has always been open that Bowie was more of a savior and mentor to him than a peer friend.  
> Is this slash fic. Well it is M/M but to me classic slash is about characters whose sexuality is unknown or outwardly heterosexual. Most likely both Bowie and Pop are canon bisexual, but both have never chosen to define this or to state they had a sexual relationship with each other.  
> My feeling as a writer is that they were not lovers and I base that on thinking that Bowie rarely if ever had romantic relationships with his many male sexual partners (Thought there is speculation over Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop) , but I think he was genuinely deeply affectionate to Iggy. I also think their relationship was symbiotic creatively and commercially. 
> 
> note: Iggy thinks as people as girl or boy but these people are adults. Bowie (probably) and Pop (definitely) had sex with people under 16 while they themselves were adults - but not as characters in this fic. 
> 
> The bit about Starsky and Hutch and the call sign is afaik canon. It's lovely that Starsky and Hutch is also classic slash fandom but that's coincidence. 
> 
> Music references are from the albums stated and lyrics from Lust For Life released August 1977.


End file.
